About Me

Hi, Im Joanne and I am a full time teacher and working single mum.
My relaxation in life has taken the form of a scrapbooking addiction with crafting stuff everywhere in the house.
Ive been scrapping about 11 years now and love it, too!

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Friday, 29 February 2008

Had a really rubbish night, cant sleep, keep waking up, tossing and turning so am now blogging and watching tv! We are off to the MIL's later so am about to get the ironing board out and get on with what I should have been doing last night instead of falling asleep in front of the telly!

Healthy eating plan still going well, need to start the excersise bit though, its just having time to start it! Nearly finished my mini book for mum, now just need to get her a pressie!

Wednesday, 27 February 2008

Didn't get a chance to blog yesterday it was one of those days. This month hasnt been a good month for sscrapping, Ive done hardly any at all! I seem to have really lost the will too, despite all the little bits and bobs of new stash I have got!

Healthy eating plan is going to plan Ive eaten loads of fruit and veg over the last few days, my poor body is going into shock with it all! But it is nice to feel that Ive not stuffed myself silly all day with rubbish.

Were off to Steve's mums on friday so will try and make sure that I post tomorrow, I have been keeping my personal journal up to date too, must post a pic of that later, I must also post the pic of Steve's mums mothers day card too. Charlotte has made the Nannies cards and tomorrow we are going to bake some cakes to take with us. So I guess that most of tomorrow will be spent getting packed and ready to go! Oh I get all the fun jobs. Still she is very excited about us coming up and its only one night!

Monday, 25 February 2008

So the start of something new happens today, Im looking foward to changing my lifestyle and eating habits, so started the day with fruit and wholemeal toast at work, my kids said, 'Joanne, what are you doing with that' pointing at the fruit on my plate! my response was 'Get used to it in the mornings I will be eating lots more of it' The looks that I got were hilarious!!!

Making a change isnt just about loosing weight its about changing my lifestyle too, getting some excercise and thinking more positively. So on a positive note, whats good in my life at the moment:

1 My home, its lovely, its big but full of stuff

2 My husband and my daughter, both so precious and unique

3 My crafting, without my scrapping I wouldnt have a release so Im pleased that I have the opportunities to do this.

4 The sunshine, not something I can control but so lovely when its sunny and bright outside.

5 A fanatstic family, parents who help ou with childcare and finance when needed and great grandparents who too help out where they can.

6 My work, its fun, interesting and worthwhile.

7 My CD player, the world is such a happy place with a bit of music

So they are some of the good things that are in my life

Housework is started, floors up and down have been washed and hoovered, the kitchen tops are all cleaned off and tidy and just about to start the lounge. I started journalling my journey last night, Steve thinks its all one big joke, but that just about sums him up. So I am off to start changing the beds upstairs and get the rooms tidier.

Sunday, 24 February 2008

Happy Sunday to you all, the weekend is well and truely in swing and this morning we have been to the garden centre, not to buy plants but to see the animals and fishes, both Notcutts and Wyevale have been tormented by Charlotte who seems to be in a whirlwind of a mood. Rabbits stroked, birds screamed at and fish tanks banged we left after just a short time!

At home Charlotte made sandwiches for everyone, and very tasty they were too, Im beggin her to go to sleep so that I can go to M&S to get a new pair of casual trousers as mine have holes in them they are sooooooo old!

Had a bit of a wake up call yesterday, another relly died and my brothers mate who is several years younger than me is back in hospital. Its made me think that its about time I stoppedwhinging about how much weight Ive put on since having Charley and got on with doing something about it. So.... diet properly starts tomorrow, no more convenience foods, no more snacking between meals and lots more fruit and veg. I also must start walking again and mum has put my name down with her to do the race for life so I now have no excuse for getting in shape. I seriously need to as I have really let myself go since having charlotte, I have no confidence in myself and feel depressed and fed up all the time. So, tomorrow sees the start of positive change in my life. I need to get on a take life by the hand as my blog says and look for the positives in everything, as well as changing my lifestyle and eating habits. Wish me luck, I'm going to pick up a notebook whilst I am out so I can journal my sucesses and my low points. It willgive me something to look back on when I have lost the weight, got used to excercising and fel ethusiastic about life again!

Saturday, 23 February 2008

The weekend is here and I can't wait to get back to work!!!! Roll on monday.

Spent yesterday in the kitchen baking, Charlotte made cupcakes and I made a victoria sandwich and some scones, yum!

We've done the weekly shop already at Tescos this morning and Steve treated us to a breakkie there which of course being Tesco's cafe and excedingly slow at serving was cold by the time we got it to the table!!! Never mind, Im used o to cold food since having Charlotte, so that is the norm for me!

Were off to feed the ducks in a bit, which is our weekend ritual, I made sure that I bought loads of cheap bread this week ready for the feeding! though Im not sure whether Charlotte or the ducks get more bread!

Had a go at the UKS challenge this week again! Bagged 30 points for my team. We had to use the following on our layouts to gain the points:

Song title from sound track of Saturday Night Fever or Grease as LO title - 10ptsTwo photos - 10ptsSomething shiney - 5ptsTo use white on LO - 5pts

So I used 2 pics of Charley, one when she was 3 months old and the second was at 3 years old!,, Used the title 'Those magic changes' from Grease. SOmething shiney was the silver brads in the centre of the flower and also the glittery 'Magic' word and the white were the backings of the photo's and my cherryatre swirls that I have been staring and touching lots but not used since I bought them months ago!!! SO there you go thats my take, the papers are Brenda Pinnick, everyone on docrafts raves about her paper, but to be honest Im not in love with it, IM looking forward to using it all up!!!! Sorry Brenda!

Thursday, 21 February 2008

I can't seem to get the momentum up to do any scrapping, been sorting through some pics from my mums but just can't find anything that inspires me! Most of my graduation pics are missing and there seem to be no negatives for any of the pics at all which is really dissapointing. Ive put some pages into my mums mothers day album along with the pic's that go with them, but can't muster the enthusiasm.

I've done several orders online but none have arrived which also disappoints me, only had one email to say one is on its way and my artymiss order from 8th Feb still hasnt arrived, they never respond to emails and Im totally fed up with it.

Spent today cleaning, tidying and sorting.

Ive sorted and put away all the ironing I did tuesday eveningTidied up my crafting stuff in the spare roomTidied Charlottes room and put all her dolly stuff up there from the garageTidied the boxes of Charley toys in the garageHung out a load of washing which isnt drying very wellCleaned the downstairs cloakoomFound about a million dummies hiding all around the houseEmptied all the binsRe-loaded the washing machine and dishwasher

and the house still looks a pigsty, Charlotte decided that she didnt want her lunch so chucked it all over the lounge floor, great I love cleaning!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Roll on nap time!!!!!!!!!!!

We have the disney film Cars on at the moment, I havent watched it from beginning to end yet everytime we put it on she gets bored halfway through! Right am off to try and get her into bed then will upload some pics onto previous posts on the blog as I have worked out how to do it now with my new camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday, 19 February 2008

Well school hols are upon us again, this will be the last one that I work so am going to try and enjoy it! Charlotte is well into holiday mode and waking up after about 7.30am which is late for her trust me!

I'm going to try and get some scrapping done this week, get some points for my UKScrappers team, Fruitloops!, I'm still waiting for my sickly laptop to be fixed so still can't post pics of what I've been up to recently which is a shame. I'm about to start a mini album for my mum for mothers day so will pop down to dad's later and pick up some pics of her with us kids!!! Horrible clothing memories spring to mind when I think of some of the hideous outfits I wore when I was little, but should be good for a laugh! Hope some of my papers go with the pics as Im on a stash diet from saturday.

I have far too much stash and really must start using it, I spent a fortune in the Jan sales! One treat will be my craft robo though, when I get my back pay at the end of this month, this is my little treat and I can't wait to order it! Am going to place just 2 more orders before I go on my stash diet on saturday as I want some Basic Grey papers - the two scoops range is gorgeous and I also want some Elsie papers too. I have signed up to the scrapagogo kits from March so that will be the stash I am allowed each month along with adhesives which are a basic requirement as any crafter will know although I am stocked up on tape runners, ds tape and sticky dots/sheets so should be fine for a while with those too.

The weekend was supposed to be great, it was only semi great! Charlotte decided to smear a pot of sudocreme all over the bedroom carpet, completely my fault as I had left it on the floor, she was trying to put it on her 'hurts' and make them better (bless her) Steve was not impressed at all and had a complete strop about it, but after a good 2.5hours of scrubbing, vaxing and washing it was almost all out. Charlotte wont be doing that anymore trust me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sudocreme incident over, Charlotte spent the night with Granny and Grandad while steve and I had dinner at Cinnamon Bay, a fab indian in Yateley, which we always have excellent food from. We cracked open a bottle of champagne (left from our wedding 3 years ago, we ended up with about 12 bottles!) and watched Atonement, which was really good.

Sunday was duck feeding time again! We do this every week, you would think we would get bored of it really. Charley enjoyed the playpark although Im not sure that a slide covered in frost is my idea of fun!

Did do the UKScrappers challenge though finally! Theme love/hate, Include the colour red or pink, Use a heart on your layout, As cupid uses a bow and arrow- use an arrow or arrows and finally a romantic quote or a love song title on your layout. I managed to claim 25 points for my team the Fruitloops!

Friday, 15 February 2008

Steves valentines cards I made for him!Today is one of those days when you wish you could sleep all day. Its been a long and tiring week. One monday I found out that the Kids club I work at will be closing its doors after half term to holiday club so only term time will continue to run. The found out yesterday that there would be a 3 month review to decide what would happen to the term time club. Sounds like everything is falling apart.

Had a call at 8.05am to tell me that a staff member hadn't turned up so had to rush into work to cover till she arrived, then back home for the housework and pick Charlotte up at 11.30am. In and out, in and out, in and out, I am now finally sitting down!

I finished Steve's mini book for valentines day and he was really pleased with it (as I was too) it was mainly pics of just him and me and things we had done together so it was nice!

Haven't done the challenge yet on UKS this week, it didnt reall appeal to me too much, it was a love/hate theme and although I have done loads of love pages I dont like to use too much pink or red in my layouts when I can use another colour. Didnt do Katys DoCrafts challenge either cos that was another love theme challenge!

Anyhow, looking forward to the weekend and some peace while Granny has Charlotte to stay and am desperate for the endof the month when I get my back pay - CRAFTROBO here I come!!!

The pick above is Steves Valentines cards I made him, the idea came from the Canny Crafter un UKS for the husband heart card! Thank you!

Monday, 4 February 2008

Well its 10 days away and Steve and I have set a challenge for each other. Last year we bought a set of 3 boxes one heart shaped, and 2 rectangular ones - Ill post a pic at some point of them. We both have £10 to fill all three and cant go over it!!!!

No idea yet whats going in it, but I'll work that out! I'm in the middle of making his card which again I'll post in a couple of days until then its top secret!!! An idea I got from the canny crafter!